I Wasn't Born Lucky

In their dreams, the little girl had become a ghost and they could no longer pay attention to the dog. They didn’t know if it died on the spot or was a dog ghost.

Xiao Li nodded. "Yes, but its state was very strange. Once it barked, the girl stopped moving towards me and she said something."

"What?"

“Go over there."

Zou Hanyi and Hao Ge asked in unison, "Which side?"

Xiao Li shrugged. "I didn’t manage to ask because I was woken up by you."

Hai Han, who woke Xiao Li up, stuttered, "...I-I didn’t mean to."

"It’s fine." Xiao Li leaned his forehead against the seat and his elbow on the door. "I’ll try to sleep again to see if I can continue communicating with her."

His tone was so calm that no one could tell if he was serious or telling a joke.

Zou Hanyi asked hesitantly, "Are you really going to sleep?"

"No, I woke up twice in one night and can’t sleep again." Xiao Li reached for the map placed between the driver’s seat and passenger’s seat. "Still, I can roughly guess where she was saying."

It was a map of the area. It wasn’t very detailed but there were several roads in and out of the exclusion zone marked, as well as large buildings inside the exclusion zone. Xiao Li took out a pen from his pocket and drew a route on the map. This was the road they had come in. Then he circled a blank space and wrote ’residential building.’ He drew a line from the residential building to the ghost light that Xiao Li had seen looking out the window of the ghost house.

"Here." Xiao Li put away his pen and estimated the distance to the light. "I saw a light here when I returned to the building."

Zou Hanyi took the map and studied it before asking Xiao Li, "Is it the same light as the residential building just now?"

"No. The lights of the residential building didn’t move. This light was very weak kept moving."

What lights could move? Zou Hanyi first thought of a lantern or— perhaps the amusement park written about on the letter?

"Go and see?" Xiao Li patted the arm of Hao Ge who was sitting in the driver’s seat.

Hao Ge looked at the sky outside. It was still a vast darkness and he couldn’t even see his five fingers if he reached out. The temperature in the forbidden zone wasn’t high. Based on the temperature, it seems to be autumn and it was late morning. The sun hadn’t risen yet.

He made a bitter expression. "Isn’t waiting for dawn better? My survival experience tells me that going out at night won’t have any good results."

Xiao Li shook his head. "The light only turns on at night. We are likely to miss it during the day."

Hao Ge didn’t want to go. He looked at the rest of the reincarnators for their support.

Hai Han chose to stand with Hao Ge and shook his head. "Don’t run around at night. This is death."

Lu Min, another reincarnator with a low presence, nodded in agreement.

Xiao Li reached out to open the door, letting cold air into the car. Hao Ge received a chill and raised his head to question Xiao Li when he heard the other person saying, "Then I’ll go first to explore the road."

"Do you want to go alone?" Hao Ge asked with surprise.

Xiao Li nodded and no longer talked. He closed the door and walked in the direction of the light. The wind rolled up the dust on the ground. He didn’t know if it was an illusion but Xiao Li always felt the air was filled with the smell of scrap metal. He coughed to clear his throat and buttoned up the buttons to the top of his shirt.

Xiao Li walked while missing his suit jacket. Unfortunately, it had been turned into sushi and discarded in the trunk. Then he started thinking about how he wanted to eat sushi. His mind was scattered and aimless when he heard the sound of an engine behind him.

An off-road vehicle chased from the rear. It made a perfect arc and stopped in front of Xiao Li. The window rolled down to reveal Hao Ge’s hard face. "Come on, Brother Xia. I really admire you."

Xiao Li went to the car, opened the rear door and admonished using Hao Ge’s previous words. "Moving at night is dangerous."

This time, the one to answer was Zou Hanyi. The girl had made up her mind and decisively raised her head. "However, the rules of the world is that we can find the path to live in danger."

Taking risks when first entering the world of instances was less dangerous than afterwards.

Hao Ge sighed. He also understood this truth but he didn’t want to lose face. Once Xiao Li left, Zou Hanyi had spoken a few words and they had chosen to follow. After all, if Zou Hanyi also left then they couldn’t continue staying in the car.

The off-road vehicle was like a beast breaking into the forbidden zone as it roared along the road. They soon came to the location of the light. It was an amusement park. According to the newspaper, the amusement park hadn’t opened yet when an explosion nearby caused the area to become uninhabitable and the residents were evacuated.

At the entrance of the amusement park stood a man who made Hao Ge stop for the first time. The lights shone on the face of the man and it wasn’t a ghost. It was a person they were familiar with.

The man squinted and took several steps towards the car. He left the area of the lights, revealing the tall man who had chosen to leave them and walk alone at the beginning.

The man’s face showed an expression of surprise and his demeanour was tired. He might be physically strong but walking an entire road without any rest made him feel exhausted. Still, he sneered coldly, "You are better than I thought. I thought you would die halfway or after you came in and found a place to rest until dawn. I didn’t think you would take the initiative to come here."

Hao Ge’s knee was shot with an arrow.

The reincarnators got down from the off-road vehicle and Zou Hanyi looked at the man. She ignored the cynicism of the other person and asked, "How did you find this place?"

The man’s voice was thick with smoke. "Rather than being curious about me, think about how you can live."

"Why are you like this?" Hai Han raised his voice in a disgruntled manner.

Xiao Li turned on the flashlight and pushed open the iron gate of the amusement park. As he walked inside, he passed by the man and glanced at this person. The man was tired but still standing upright. Xiao Li asked sympathetically, "Are you tired?"

The man, "..."

Before he could answer, Xiao Li had entered the amusement park. The man’s face was cloudy and he finally chose to follow far behind.

******

The amusement park was home to plants and moss that wildly covered the amusement park equipment. The smell of plants masked the smell of metal in the air, burying everything that once was. The amusement park was fully equipped with rotating swings, the hammer and other games. It wasn’t difficult to imagine what it would be like if it was open.

Now only the white light of the flashlight shone on various facilities, adding a bit of fear. Xiao Li bypassed the spinning swing and looked up into the air. A Ferris wheel stood in the centre of the amusement park. A cockpit at the top of the Ferris wheel had a light that moved regularly as the Ferris wheel moved. Then that cockpit contained a ghost that was looking down over the forbidden zone?

The reincarnators couldn’t help speculating.

At this time, there was a squeaking sound that came from behind the crowd, as if chains were rubbing against each other. Xiao Li looked back and saw that the spinning swing had moved suddenly, the seat swaying back and forth. It was like there was an invisible person sitting on the swing and swinging around. The chains of the fixed swing seats were already rusty and the sound of friction was very loud, making the people who listened feel uncomfortable.

The man reacted first. He had originally been standing close to the swing but he instantly took a few steps back, opening a wide distance as he stared cautiously at the swing. He maintained a safe distance of at least three metres from the widest rotation of the swing.

In front of their eyes, the swing continued to swing back and forth, the magnitude getting bigger and bigger as the chain friction sound was amplified.

Xiao Li couldn’t bear it anymore and walked to the edge of the swing. He grabbed the chain directly with his hand and forced the swing to stop moving. Then he spoke toward the swing seat, "I have something to say so don’t make any noise. It is uncomfortable to hear."

The ghost sitting on the swing, "???"

Xiao Li let go of his hand. The swing started creaking again so he once again had to grab it. "Don’t play with the swings. Do you see the Ferris wheel over there? It is still spinning so you should play that."

This time, Xiao Li could feel that the ghost on the swing had moved. The weight in his hand was obviously lighter. Then he let go of his hand and the swing stopped swinging.

Xiao Li looked down at his hand that had touched a layer of rust and then glanced at the rest of the reincarnators. He wanted to ask them if they had any paper towels but the first thing he saw was Hao Ge’s strange eyes directed at the swing.

He glanced between Hao Ge and the swing before pointing at the swing in a hesitant manner. "Do you want to play as well?"

Hao Ge, "..."

No, he didn’t want to!

Xiao Li pulled a leaf from a tree and wiped the rust from his hands. Then he sincerely admonished Hao Ge, "Don’t play that. The noise is too big. You should change to something else. Look for your favourite."

Hao Ge couldn’t help growling out, "Sherlock, enough. Who would like to play in a place like this?"

Xiao Li was puzzled. "Me. I’d like to sit on the Ferris wheel."

Hao Ge, "..."

He took a while before managing to say, "Then you are quite childish, haha."

The author has something to say:

Ferris wheel: No, I don’t want to be sat on by you!